Transcript for New Weight-Loss Procedure Involves Sewing a Patch on a Patient's Tongue

controversial new procedure to lose weight. It involves holding your tongue, literally. Abc's cecilia vega on the shocking lengths to which some patients go. I am determined to lose weight. I'm willing to do anything at this point. I'm so desperate to lose weight. Reporter: Each hope to drop 20 pounds in 30 days. Two overweight women who can't control their eating going to extremes to lose weight fast. A stiff plastic patch, stitched right to their tongues will inflict sharp pain if they try to eat any solid food. It's called the tongue patch. Cosmetic surgeon introduced the procedure in the u.S. Four years ago, after first seeing it done in latin america. You are sewing a foreign object into somebody's mouth. Is that healthy? Well, it's not unhealthy. I can't move my tongue. I can't talk. An average weight loss is anywhere from 18 to 20 pounds in that one month's time. Reporter: Have you ever received any flack from colleagues in the medical community for this? No, I haven't. There is not one scintilla of hope or evidence, that putting a patch on your tongue, and not being able to eat for a month, is going to have any effects on you at one year or two years or three years. Reporter: Weight loss expert points to studies that show most extreme dieters, who lose weight rapidly eventually gain it all back and more. Marlene doesn't need a study to convince her, she's getting all the data she needs from her bathroom scales, as the pounds fall away. My arms are a lot thinner. She is also watching the pounds melt away. So far I lost 15, 16 pounds. Reporter: The fin tally marlene loses 18 pounds. Lysander loses 23 pounds. I don't want to go through that again. It was really hard for me. Reporter: Look at you, you're smiling. I would do it again.

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